DENVER — Were this Olympics platform diving, a big ten is probably the electronic score I’d give Michelle Obama now that judges don’t hold up cards emblazoned with numbers anymore.

The overnight polls will tell the story, but my sense after being on hand for dozens of these convention speeches since Ronald Reagan’s first nomination was that Michelle Obama did precisely what she needed to do — and carried it out with an appealing flair.

I made it a point to watch her speech like voters do, on television and away from the distorting bedlam of the convention floor.

The response from regular folks was much like the scene after a good movie — when folks in the theater stand and clap.

“Heck, maybe SHE should be the Obama on the ticket,” one independent voter remarked.

What she needed to do tonight was this: Raise the comfort level squeamish voters have with her little-known husband and show that although he might be of a different color, he has the same sorts of values and dreams and family problems as voters in rural Missouri or eastern Ohio.

I thought she might have gone even a little farther — baring a flaw or two of her husband. (Does he leave the cap off the toothpaste or something?) But at least we know now that he’s a pokey driver and got shut down looking for a date, like a lot of guys.

I think she scored, and big — and I disagree with the TV analysts who argued that the Democrats needed to begin their convention by throwing out red-meat and hammering John McCain.

There’s time for that — and this time voters want more.